Camp Verso L'Alto Pilgrimage
Every Labor Day, ARK gathers for a long weekend of faith and fellowship in the great outdoors. Camp Verso L'alto is named after the Italian phrase "to the Heights" coined by Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who is known for leading young adults to the heights of faith through outdoor adventures. Every year we gather for fellowship and outdoor activities in Oregon, but this year, we have a special adventure in store!
CVLA 2024 will be a walking pilgrimage along the California Camino visiting 3 different Missions and ending at Mission Carmel, the Sanctuary of St. Junipero Serra. From Thursday to Monday of Labor Day Weekend, we will journey together to California (by plane) and then travel the Camino as pilgrims (by foot)! This is an incredible opportunity to grow in faith, be renewed in zeal, and experience Catholic fellowship in a unique and transformative way. This pilgrimage will include opportunities for group prayer and mass as well as individual reflection while on the Camino.
Purpose of a Pilgrimage
For nearly two millennia, Catholics have been going on pilgrimage, going in prayer to places where God has specially manifested himself. And each pilgrimage is a spiritual journey, taking us deeper into our relationship with God, and building relationships, and community, among our fellow pilgrims. Each pilgrimage is an image of the Church on earth, the pilgrim Church on earth, journeying to heaven. As we journey to our destination, we grow in prayer and fellowship, even as our hearts experience deeper conversion. A pilgrimage is a very blessed experience of community, where sometimes unlikely friendships are formed because of the shared experience. And they are great experiences of witnessing to our faith publicly, as others see us walking and wonder what we are doing, where we are going, and why.
Pope Benedict XVI once wrote: “To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage means to step out of ourselves to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendor and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe.”
Often in the US, we can think that we don’t have any such places on our soil, that we have to go to a foreign land to find where God has revealed himself in human history so powerfully that those places are still touched by and still have the power to transmit his grace. We think of the Holy Land, perhaps, or Italy, where it seems that saints have walked every street or lived in every town.
But even here in the US, such places exist. And one of the most powerful places of pilgrimage here in the states is the Camino Real of California, which connects the 21 missions, many of which were established by St. Junipero Serra. As we go on this CVLA pilgrimage, we will walk in the footsteps of this great missionary Saint, who himself walked thousands of miles on foot to bring the Gospel to those who had never heard of Jesus Christ.
St. Junipero Serra, pray for us!
Learn about St. Junipero Serra HERE.
Dates: August 29–September 2 (Labor Day Weekend, Thursday–Monday)
Where: California Mission Walk, to the Sanctuary of St. Junipero Serra.
Cost: The estimated price is $595 (flight and land). Land only is $290. Deposit is $200.
Interested in joining or learning more? You're invited to the Pilgrimage Info Session on Thursday, May 9 via Zoom. The meeting is at 7 p.m. and will be recorded.
Space on the pilgrimage is limited to 25 people. Sign-ups will be first come, first serve. With questions, e-mail Kristen at ark@stmicaelportland.org